5.08 Blog

Lately I have been reading this book Self Reliance by Ralph Waldo Emerson. This book is about transdentalism. Transcendentalism is an American literary, political, and philosophical movement of the early nineteenth century, centered around Ralph Waldo Emerson. In the book he Emerson also talks about Henry Thoreau, who is a strong believer of transdentalism. People who believe in transdentalism are believers in nature. They believe that schools, institutions, and especially governments are very bad for society and mankind. In the book its also explains that all of these governments and schools is a violation of peoples rights. Emerson was such a peaceful and religious person. He lived in the woods with nature, because he did not believe in living cities, because they are controlled by the government. Emerson hates the government because he thinks that they take advantage of the citizens, and the citizens are easily fooled by them. In the book it also had a short essay from Thoreau. Thoreau believed exactly what Emerson did about governments and schools. Thoreau used an example of the Mexican-American war. In order to get the public to favor the war, the government tricked the citizens that favoring the war would bring 3 times more land (It brought Only New Mexico and part of Texas, not 3 times more then the U.S), more economic stability etc. They lied, the economy actually went south and policies were not so great. So basically the authors intent is saying that everyone should stop believing and trusting governments and go against them. The organizational pattern the author used mostly cause and effect. My reaction after was skeptical. Although Emerson is right, I will still believe in the government and continue to support them.